Loew Goes Global
The programming of a new language.
Though bold, precise and seemingly complete, Jonathan and The Northern Block were soon to discover that Loew’s final phase of refinement was yet to come. After the typeface’s customisation for Vauxhall Motors, Jonathan had grasped the commercial necessity of functional, all-rounded neutrality among their extensive typographic cache.
But it took an enquiry from Hilton Worldwide to understand that typefaces weren’t just feats of design: they were also complex recitals of technical expertise.
“Typefaces weren’t just feats of design: they were also complex recitals of technical expertise.”
‘We were totally overwhelmed that a customer with a global business presence wanted to partner with us’.
‘Astonishingly’, Jonathan begins, ‘Hilton Worldwide simply wanted Loew as it was.’ As a renowned multinational hospitality company - set with an immense portfolio of entertainment complexes, hotels and resorts - Jonathan explains that The Northern Block still feel honoured by Hilton’s unequivocal invitation to collaborate. ‘We were totally overwhelmed that a customer with a global business presence wanted to partner with us: it felt like we were being let in on a huge secret,’ Jonathan demurs.
But, of course, every great success story is marred by challenge and perseverance, and Loew is no different. ‘We’d worked as hard as we could on the design’, Jonathan says. ‘It was everything they wanted: corporate, sleek, regular. Only, there were technical glitches, and neither me nor Mariya had the skills to level these out.’
Re-mapping phase of Loew’s
(CJK) multi-scripts proposal.
‘They were asking for a huge piece of software’.
When Hilton Worldwide brought forward their licensing request, it became apparent just how extensive the role they had envisioned for Loew was – spotlighting, as it would in due course, on every single element of typographic publicity: internal documentation, brochures, ticket-receipts, mastheads, emails and letters. ‘They were asking for a huge piece of software’, Jonathan explains, ‘and at that point we appreciated that The Northern Block needed to reach out to those who could make it happen.’
While Hilton loved Loew’s clear, spacious lettering and stylistic simplicity and professionalism, they lamented the fact that the typeface ran into difficulty on some of their corporate applications. ‘It clicked for me right then’, Jonathan explains. ‘I suddenly realised that type-design is only one-part art, design and story-telling. The other is a more scientific process, though just as crucial: that of developing a robust piece of programming.’
Turning to the outside world, Jonathan then came across Malcolm Wooden, a talented font-developer. Armed with 39-years of experience in the business – beginning as an apprentice at Monotype and working his way up – Malcolm was equipped to make critical decisions affecting how the typeface performs as a font. By his incorporation into The Northern Block’s team – once small, intimate and provincial – it became clear that the company was changing irrevocably. ‘Loew’, Jonathan admits, ‘opened new avenues.
Malcolm had the digital engineering knowledge to set-off a process of rapid internationalisation that hasn’t showed signs of slowing.’ Before Loew, he continues, ‘globalisation was an unfamiliar term for me: something just banded about by the government without meaning. But now, here it was, spreading through our company like an unstoppable force. I could hardly ignore it.’
“Collaborating en masse to create original, conceptual artistry”.
Since that moment, The Northern Block’s team has panned-out into almost every continent, with designers from Japan, Canada, Croatia, Moscow, Argentina and Denmark collaborating en masse to create original, conceptual artistry. Providing the constant stimulus behind the company’s ambition and desire for progression, almost every measure of Loew’s fine-tuning necessitated the drafting in of new faces and fresh expertise.
Given that the most recent commercial instalment is Loew’s Arabic design, it seems that even now, the story isn’t quite complete. Perhaps it never will be.
Notable Usage